Charlotte nc in 2050/ light rail to Rockhill Sc/greater Charlotte Msa
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Data centers absolutely do NOT "employ massive numbers of people." Where are you getting this from?
You didn't understand what I posted. Google does not manages a 20,000 machine server farm with just the people inside the facility. Did you miss what I said about Dublique Iowa?
Since you seem not to be familiar I will give you a rundown. These farms employ huge numbers of people involved in programming, security, logging, network administration, application installation & maintenance, compliance, reporting, finance, anti-virus, software distribution, OS provisioning, access, etc. If it is a hosting site there are even more employees handling client requests vs internal procedures. These people are all remote and this is the entire point. It's decentralization on a mass scale. It's a giant industry where the jobs are not being driven into cities.
The rest of your response to my post is moot because it does not address what I've posted.
..... More space. Microsoft has a very nice campus, entirely to itself. That wouldn't be possible if it were built at the location Uptown your link refers to. .....
Why not? Are you saying the center of Charlotte can't handle a client requesting 300,000 sq ft worth of office space?
If what you say is true, then no large employer will choose to locate in the center city. They will all be headed to the suburbs. So, no need to build new trains there from Rock Hill.
You didn't understand what I posted. Google does not manages a 20,000 machine server farm with just the people inside the facility. Did you miss what I said about Dublique Iowa?
Since you seem not to be familiar I will give you a rundown. These farms employ huge numbers of people involved in programming, security, logging, network administration, application installation & maintenance, compliance, reporting, finance, anti-virus, software distribution, OS provisioning, access, etc. If it is a hosting site there are even more employees handling client requests vs internal procedures. These people are all remote and this is the entire point. It's decentralization on a mass scale. It's a giant industry where the jobs are not being driven into cities.
The rest of your response to my post is moot because it does not address what I've posted.
Those people aren't employed by the farms themselves; they are part of the larger infrastructure of the companies and most were in place even before the construction of these individual farms. That's a pretty big difference. It's almost akin to bank branches in relation to regional and headquarters offices.
Why not? Are you saying the center of Charlotte can't handle a client requesting 300,000 sq ft worth of office space?
If what you say is true, then no large employer will choose to locate in the center city. They will all be headed to the suburbs. So, no need to build new trains there from Rock Hill.
It depends on the timing and office market conditions. Normally, Uptown would most likely have had spec space available or under construction for a tenant needing this much space. However, given the current economic climate, the construction of spec space is a little more of a gamble then it used to be. This will eventually change and shouldn't be interpreted as being typical of the state of affairs for any central city.
Even so, a commuter rail network does more than just connect one suburb to the central city--hence the term "network."
Why not? Are you saying the center of Charlotte can't handle a client requesting 300,000 sq ft worth of office space?
If what you say is true, then no large employer will choose to locate in the center city. They will all be headed to the suburbs. So, no need to build new trains there from Rock Hill.
What are you talking about? Microsoft has an entire campus to itself. Gateway Village is not a one-tenant building. If I were Microsoft, I would have picked the Arrowpoint location as well. Did you bother to read the entire article you linked me to?
It depends on the timing and office market conditions.
The Microsoft example was in 1999. Gateway Village was still being developed and BofA appeared to be willing to make almost any change for a client like Microsoft. They were going to give MS free parking and a number of other undisclosed incentives to go there.
Despite this, Microsoft, did not see any advantage to being located in the center city and hence choose Arrowwood Rd. instead. It pretty much proves the point that I made about trends and technology.
Those people aren't employed by the farms themselves; they are part of the larger infrastructure of the companies and most were in place even before the construction of these individual farms. That's a pretty big difference. It's almost akin to bank branches in relation to regional and headquarters offices.
Who signs their paycheck isn't the point. The job was created by the farm. Many are surprised to learn that Amazon operates one of the largest server farm businesses in the world. Netflix is a AWS client that streams their movies from Amazon. This is an industry that has been built completely from scratch over the last 5 - 10 years.
I think you severely underestimate the effort required to fully manage, sell, and support server farms. I've been in a few of these places and they are so large inside you almost get vertigo. They require a large dedicated staff to manage with dedicated infrastructure. There will be multiple sites spread out geographically and these teams will support all the sites as one image. As I said, it is mass decentralization on a huge scale. Expect to see this paradigm spread to other industries.
What are you talking about? Microsoft has an entire campus to itself. Gateway Village is not a one-tenant building. If I were Microsoft, I would have picked the Arrowpoint location as well. Did you bother to read the entire article you linked me to?
I did read it. The reason I linked it was because you said you didn't believe that Microsoft had been offered huge incentives to locate in the center city. This topic is about the need to build a train to the center city because of expected growth in jobs in the center city.
My argument is that it won't be there. When the USA's largest bank can't convince the world's largest software company the center city is a good place to do business, then this doesn't bode well for those prospects. Why MS didn't do it doesn't matter. Other companies will have their reasons for avoiding the center city too.
I did read it. The reason I linked it was because you said you didn't believe that Microsoft had been offered huge incentives to locate in the center city. This topic is about the need to build a train to the center city because of expected growth in jobs in the center city.
My argument is that it won't be there. When the USA's largest bank can't convince the world's largest software company the center city is a good place to do business, then this doesn't bode well for those prospects. Why MS didn't do it doesn't matter. Other companies will have their reasons for avoiding the center city too.
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I did not say I didn't believe Microsoft had been offered incentives to locate to Uptown, I said I didn't believe Charlotte made the push for Microsoft to locate Uptown and get denied for it's current location. You deleted the last portion of the sentence in your reply to me and linked me to the article which specifically states the reason Microsoft went to Arrowpoint. Microsoft went to Arrowpoint because there was much more room. They could be independent.
Bank of America has absolutely no control over where Microsoft chooses to locate it's offices. Bank of America does not speak for the entire Uptown area. Bank of America does not need to prove that the Uptown area is good for business to any other company other than Bank of America. Why Microsoft didn't want to go to Uptown does matter, and makes clear sense.
Many, many, many other companies that have offices in Charlotte are not in Uptown. Uptown is not the only business district in the metropolitan area, therefore not every company should/will go there. MetLife went to Ballantyne, Maersk is in Southpark, ect, ect, ect.
There's no city in the country that has every large company's office in the CBD, and that's what you're suggesting should have taken place.
I'm done disputing this argument with you. You proved yourself wrong and continue to push your theory.
Last edited by SunnyKayak; 06-10-2013 at 06:44 AM..
Reason: tos violation
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